The San Francisco 49ers made a couple of moves at wide receiver this offseason, signing Mike Evans and Christian Kirk in free agency, while drafting De\u2019Zhaun Stribling with their first pick of the 2026 NFL Draft at No. 33 overall.<\/p>\n
Those three additions provide much-needed depth and talent at wide receiver, where the 49ers struggled in 2025. Without Brandon Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel, the 49ers didn\u2019t have a wideout top 650 receiving yards, as injuries and struggles on the field led the way.<\/p>\n
Evans gives the 49ers a proven No. 1 wide receiver who can win on the outside, although he comes with his own risks after the most injury-laden season of his career in 2025. He\u2019ll be 33 this season, but has been highly productive when healthy and should be a good red-zone weapon.<\/p>\n
Kirk dealt with injuries as well in 2025, but is another proven weapon who can operate out of the slot and give the 49ers good depth alongside Evans and Ricky Pearsall. Stribling\u2019s role as a rookie is unclear, but he worked well after the catch in college and gives the 49ers a big, fast receiver at 225 pounds.<\/p>\n
Still, could the 49ers add one more weapon to the room? Former 49ers star Deebo Samuel remains a free agent this offseason after his deal with the Washington Commanders expired, and he\u2019s searching for a new home.<\/p>\n
Samuel, 30, caught 72 passes for 727 yards and five touchdowns with the Commanders in 2025, while playing in 16 games. He didn\u2019t see much usage as a runner, getting only 17 carries for 75 yards and a touchdown.<\/p>\n
Samuel\u2019s average depth of target was quite low once again at 5.2 yards per target, but he did have some big games for the Commanders, especially early in the season.<\/p>\n
Could he be another player that returns to the 49ers on a one-year deal? Some of his former teammates vouched for a potential return this weekend.<\/p>\n
On one of Samuel\u2019s recent Instagram posts, both George Kittle and Kyle Juszczyk commented, welcoming the wideout back to the Bay Area should he choose to return.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a guest house with your name on it,\u201d Juszczyk wrote, with Kittle writing a similar remark: \u2018I also have a guest house labeled \u2018Deebo\u2019s second home.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, the 49ers have mentioned the desire to get younger and cheaper, but they\u2019ve also added several veterans this offseason, including Evans, Kirk, linebacker Dre Greenlaw, and others, as they look to maximize their current championship window.<\/p>\n
Samuel could be another low-cost, one-year option that gives the 49ers more depth and reliability at wide receiver with a familiar face. The wideout should find a new home, should he choose, before the season starts, and there are many better situations for more playing time, including with the Commanders, who don\u2019t have any proven options behind Terry McLaurin.<\/p>\n
But there are also options available back home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The San Francisco 49ers made a couple of moves at wide receiver this offseason, signing Mike Evans and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405373,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,8376,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-405372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-49ers-news","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}